Heating Packs and a Scarf
by sweetchcolate
Summary: Her scarf, Aoko's scarf, was pressed to the lower half of his face, red blossoming on Aoko's cheeks as she looked at him with round blue eyes. (Something told him her reaction had nothing to do with the cold.)


It was cold.

It was _really_ cold.

And the worse was that it snuck in from _everywhere_. Any opening the cold found, it followed with mad glee: under his gloves and sleeves, under the legs of pants, into his socks and shoes, and even under his collar, the cold trapped between clothes and skin.

He had long lost any sensation in his fingers and toes, and his face was getting numb, the first victims being his nose and that little patch of skin where his monocle rested. Kid was even wondering if his brain hadn't malfunctioned because of the biting cold, hallucinating the presence of one Nakamori Aoko.

"Nakamori-chan?" he asked, trying to blink the illusion away. Nope, it really was her, appropriately dressed for the weather in a pink coat and gray gloves, holding a plastic bag to her torso. "How…?"

"The tower telescopes," Aoko answered, her voice muffled behind the thick scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face. Her breath came out in puffs, forming wispy clouds. "You know, the ones tourists use to see the town."

"You managed to spot me?" He was baffled, but managed to keep most of his surprise under the tight reign of his poker face. Finding someone through binoculars was long and tedious, the human-scale equivalent of a needle in the middle of a haystack, even if he was decked in all white, an obvious big fat target. And in the middle of the night, with all the light pollution? It was practically mission impossible.

Aoko shrugged, casual. "I knew you'd be somewhere high up, but close to the museum. So that's where I looked."

Sound logic, he'd give her that. But to comb through all the skyscrapers and other tall buildings, trying to spot someone in white without any certainty he'd be there… "It must have taken you a while."

"A bit."

He blinked. Strange… the Nakamori Aoko he knew would have said something along the lines of "do you have any idea how long it took me to find you? Stupid thief, I almost froze my butt off." _Not_ answer with the understatement of the century.

And she was too quiet. Aoko never made her feelings a secret: she screamed, and pouted, and frowned, and blushed, but she wasn't so… reserved, so closed off. He didn't quite like it.

"In that case, I must congratulate you on your dedication," Kid told her, clapping and swallowing a pained hiss at the sting when his frozen palms made contact. His voice took on a teasing lilt, wanting to rile her up a little. "But if you wanted my attention, there are better ways to go."

Like he expected, Aoko bristled, tightening her hold on the plastic bag tucked to her chest. If she was a cat, Kid was pretty sure all the hair on her body would be standing on end. "That's not it!"

"Oh, so you didn't seek me out hoping for a whirlwind romance?"

"Be serious for a minute!" Aoko hissed, face taking on a rosy hint from anger and the chill and he laughed. He didn't mean to push her like this, he really didn't, but how could he hold back on the teasing when she reacted this way?

"That's sixty seconds too many−" A sneeze rudely interrupted him mid-sentence. Then another, and another, followed by a fourth one that left his eyes watery and his throat itching. "Sorry about that."

A frown came to Aoko's face. "You're going to catch a cold. Don't you have anything warm to wear?"

"I do." Kid rubbed his hands up and down against his arms to generate heat. He smiled, sheepish. "But I hoped I could tough out the cold."

"…dummy," she muttered, and his smile turned soft despite the insult, catching on the undertone of worry in her voice and choosing not to draw attention to it. Aoko shifted on her feet, casting an uncertain look at her plastic bag, at him, then back at the plastic bag, worrying her lower lip with her teeth.

After a few moments of internal debate, she finally looked up, expression determined, blue eyes focused, and made her way to him. Kid stood at full length, clenching his muscles to brace himself as the gears in his brain spun at full speed in anticipation of everything that could happen in the next ten seconds.

He definitely didn't expect for Aoko to shove her plastic bag against his chest, the impact drawing a pained grunt from his lips. "Hold this," she told him, voice brooking no argument, and his body obeyed the order, mind blanking as all the possible scenarios he had planned for went up in smokes.

A second later, something warm and fluffy brushed against his mouth. Kid wondered if, somehow, he hadn't been knocked out by the hit and if this wasn't some kind of black out induced dreaming, but when he blinked again and again, the same sight remained: her scarf, _Aoko's_ scarf, pressed to the lower half of his face, red blossoming on Aoko's cheeks as she looked at him with round blue eyes.

(Something told him her reaction had nothing to do with the cold.)

"Nakamori-chan?" he breathed, voice muffled but the wonder in his tone soft and clear. Aoko started, averting her gaze, lashes fluttering, and mouth twisting in what he could only call embarrassment.

"H-hold still," she stuttered. Her arms rose to loop the ends of her scarf behind his neck, tugging to make sure it was snug around him before securing the tips under the lapels of his suit. When she was done, she took a few steps back, clasping her shaking hands behind her back.

"Heating packs. You can stick them inside your suit," Aoko squeaked, gesturing to the bag with a tilt of her head and refusing to look him in the face. "Keep the scarf." With that, she whirled around and practically ran away, leaving behind a dazed Kid.

He stared at the spot she had vacated for long moments, sight fogging with each breath he exhaled, mind slow and muted like it was filled with cotton as he tried to comprehend what happened in the last minute or so. The plastic bag in his hands crinkled and he looked at its content, finding inside exactly what Aoko promised. Something warm and fuzzy burst from his chest, spreading through his veins to his fingertips and toes, up his neck and into his cheeks, burning him from the inside out.

He didn't feel cold anymore.

But Kid was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the heating packs.

* * *

_a/n: tfw you want to finish one of your wips but you write another fic instead lol_


End file.
